I. Farzak was among the most pious of mortals. Hymns were ever upon his lips as he toiled to earn his daily bread, and almost every hour which he could call his own he spent on his knees in the village pantherium -- a temple dedicated to all the gods. There he prayed not for gain, not for the riches or glories which others craved. His sole desire was that the gods might make him their servant, and grant him the ability to carry out their bidding.
II.Though Farzak's village was small, its pantherium contained great wealth. Many generations earlier a warrior woman had staggered through its doorway, laden with golden chalices and other artifacts she'd found deep within a nearby dungeon. As she collapsed upon the temple's mosaic floor, her flesh wounded by a monster's infectious bite, she vowed to dedicate her new found wealth to the gods in exchange for healing. The clerics tended to her, calling upon their divine masters for aid. No more than an hour later the woman walked from the pantherium, her body strong and healthy -- leaving her riches behind, as she had promised. They remained there even to Farzak's own day. But bandits had learned of those treasures, and cast a covetous glance towards his village.
III. Some men and women took up arms when the bandits rode into their village. The gruesome deaths they suffered cowed the others. The rest hid themselves in their homes, huddled with their families, and murmered fearful prayers - expecting each moment to perish to flame or steel. But the bandits had not come to raid the meager possessions of peasants. The pantherium was their goal, and the ancient wealth held within its walls. So they leapt from their horses and ran for its door. And there they found Farzak blocking their path.
IV. Farzak grasped a sturdy cudgel in his hands, and stared at the bandits with fearless eyes. He remonstrated with them, urged them not to defile the temple and incur the wrath of the gods. But the brigands laughed. Then they attacked. And though Farzak fought valiantly, stood his ground even as blades tore his flesh and maces cracked his bones, he was no match for even one such marauder - men whose lives were filled with violence and slaughter. He was left bloody and broken upon the mosaic floor, only kept alive that he might witness the pillaging of his beloved pantherium before dying a slow death from his wounds.
V. Some of the gods bore witness to Farzak's courageous martyrdom, and were impressed by his piety and devotion. They sent their emissaries to Tor'gyyl, and had them bring the dying human before them. There, surrounded by the magnificent wonders of that divine realm, Farzak was healed and his body was transformed. He became what he had always longed to be - a servant of the gods, one of the angelic beings lauded in hymn and prayer, depicted in the paintings and tapestries that adorned the temples of their masters and mistresses.
VI. Farzak flitted around the divine realm, bore witness to its innumerable glories and endless beauties. He lauded the gods and goddesses as he had on Tor'gyyl, though now his angelic voice would ring out for a mile in each direction with those words of praise. And he served them in deed as well as voice. For whenever a god had need of a messenger he was first to heed the call, ever ready to swoop down upon the mortal world and carry out their will.
VII. It is said that the gods are much like men. Though far greater in power, they bear many of the same failings as their mortal worshippers. Farzak first learned of this when he flitted past Rassys' palace, and glanced through the window of her bedchamber. There he saw her atop a martial god whose wife was heavy with his seed. For one such as Farzak, who had always shunned the ribald myths and legends - regarding them as blasphemous untruths - it was a harsh awakening. And it was far from his last. For the longer he spent among the gods, the more distant they seemed from the beings he had worshipped as a mortal man.
VIII. Farzak witnessed many acts of pettiness and wickedness performed by the gods, and with each of them his prayers grew fainter and his heart harder. The final blow to his faith came when Rassys called upon him, demanding that he carry out her bidding on Tor'gyyl. She commanded him to slay a mortal man whom she had taken as a lover, and who was at that very moment lying with an elf maiden. Farzak's eyes gleamed when he heard this, when he was told to take a life for the very same sin he had seen Rassys herself commit. He flew from her palace, and descended from the divine realm. But it wasn't towards Tor'gyyl that he turned his flight.
IX. The gates of hell are designed to keep fiends within, not to bar intruders from without. For who would want to enter the infernal realms of their own accord? Thus Farzak found no obstacle before him when he flew into that grim demonic domain. He walked among the hellish beings, gazed upon their sin and evil. And there he saw honesty he had not found among the gods. So he decided that he would reign in hell rather than serve in heaven, and carve out his destiny among the flames and screams.